This invention is in the field of predictive dialing systems, and more particularly deals with the provision of a low-cost automated method of recording telephone call results in the contact database employed in a predictive dialing campaign.
Predictive dialing systems have greatly increased the efficiency of telemarketing operators, allowing them to spend their time talking to prospects rather than doing the mechanical tasks necessary to establish contact with the prospect. These systems automatically dial telephone numbers from a list stored in a prospect database. Busy signals and unanswered calls are recycled for dialing later, and answered calls are put in a queue to await a non-busy operator. Thus the operators are supplied with a steady stream of prospects on answered telephone lines.
Specified information from the database about the prospect can also be displayed to the non-busy operator receiving the call. Various computer programs are used to attempt to match the flow of answered calls to non-busy operators, minimizing both the waiting time for prospects and the idle time for operators.
A further desired feature of such systems is the ability to record the outcome of the calls made back in the prospect database. The system manager is thereby provided with the information he requires about the call results. As well, typically, once all numbers in the database have been dialed, the system starts through the list of telephone numbers again. The results recorded for the previous call to this number will indicate whether the number should be dialed again or skipped.
Present systems employ a computer terminal for each operator, allowing considerable detailed information to be relayed firstly to the operator about the contact, and secondly to the computer database about the outcome of the call. In many applications however, such detailed information is not necessary, and it may not be necessary that the operator have any information about the prospect he is talking to. In some systems, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,412 to Ramot et al., control of the telephone functions is also done through the computer keyboard or mouse. The cost of such a system is high, however, limiting the market for this type of equipment, since in a typical sixteen operator installation there would be at least seventeen computers and a network linking them required, in addition to the dialing controller and sixteen operator telephones, and sixteen to twenty outside telephone lines. Present systems also require a computer network linking all computers to the predictive dialer and the computer database.
A predictive dialing system which eliminated the need for computer terminals at each operator station while continuing to provide for call data feedback from the operators for storage in the campaign database would be desirable. The device would be much simpler to install and manufacture, and obviously the cost would be lower as in the cost of operator computer terminals and their supporting computer network can be eliminated.
This could be accomplished using operator devices, with dial tone multifrequency (DTMF) capability. DTMF signals could be fed back to the dialing controller where they could be converted into data for transmission to and storage in the database. Call results could be dialed back into the central database from the keypad of a basic operator telephone set or any other DTMF-capable device.
Using DTMF signals to send information to the central database in a predictive dialing application would allow any DTMF-capable device to be used by the operators. Basic DTMF devices, such as telephones, are inexpensive and can make such a predictive dialing apparatus very affordable, in addition to very useful in applications not requiring the full complexity and multitude of functions provided by a system employing computer terminals at every operator station.